Question Number: 29287

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 4/5/2015

RE: Rec Adult

Brian of Toronto, ON Canada asks...

I give a defender a red card and award a penalty only to look over and see my A/R waving his flag advising the attacker was off-side.
What do I do now???

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Brian,
hmm kick yourself for not looking up sooner sigh!
Now you earn that paycheck, find out if you were right or not by talking to the AR and finding out what is up? The AR advises the referee, you consider what he says then act as you think you should . If you accept the AR input as correct, the foul on the offside attacker is no longer the reason you need to restart play. It is an INDFK out for the offside . Now the type of foul, was it excessive SFP or DOGSO? IF DOGSO you must rescind the card, if it was for SFP now only VC then the card will stand/ The lesson here is eye contact with the AR BEFORE you start handing out cards and awarding PKS. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, check with the AR at every stoppage and restart of play. If you make a mistake own it and learn, but get on with it. No one is perfect but think in the post game how to avoid such things in the future!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Brian
The correct decision is to rescind the red card and restart with an IDFK for offside. The mechanics is to go across to the AR and confirm that the flag was for offside.
Now if the actions of the defender on the red card offence was for violent conduct then the sending off will still apply. The restart though is still an IDFK for offside.
The advice here is to make good eye contact with ARs on all decisions. If that is done the red card decision does not arise.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

Well you for sure go back and penalize the offside (unless you disagree with it). As far as the red card, it depends what it was for. If it was for anything but the denial of an obvious goal scoring opportunity, it would most likely stand. If it was for DOGSO, then you would take the red card back as it was not a scoring opportunity due to the offside.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Brian,

This one highlights the importance of eye contact with your AR - when a ball is played through, you need to be checking with your AR constantly. Even if you don't think there's a potential offside. Of course you need to make sure you don't take your eye off play at a critical moment, but that's where positioning comes into play - if you can keep the ball between yourself and the AR you don't need to look away from play. For instance, when the ball is entering the PA, you usually don't want to be behind play, but off to the left so you can see through play to the AR.
But, finding yourself in this situation, I think it's worth talking to the AR to clarify the situation.
But in short, I'm assuming that the attacker received the ball, then was fouled? If so, it has to go back to the offside. If, however, he was fouled on the way to receiving the ball (eg running onto a through ball), then it will probably still be the foul, unless you could judge he interfered with the defender first (thus became actively offside).

Finally, why was the defender sent off? If it was SFP that will stand either way, except when you report it, it will be VC. If DOGSO, it must be rescinded - and it can be before play resumes.
Might be worth involving the captains here to let them know what's going on for the sake of clarity.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 29291